[Diamond District – Midtown Manhattan, Daytime 2013]
The alarms blaring across 47th Street were a harsh, rhythmic counterpoint to the panicked shouts of the crowd. Midtown Manhattan's Diamond District was bleeding people. As terrified civilians scrambled out of the jewelry exchanges, three figures moved aggressively against the tide.
The Wizard hovered just above the asphalt, the anti-gravity discs on his boots emitting a low, angry thrum. Above him, the Beetle banked hard, his metallic wings casting long, predatory shadows over the pavement. Between them, the Trapster sprinted, lugging two heavy, reinforced cases packed with uncut diamonds.
"Move!" Wizard snapped over his shoulder. "Midtown precincts respond in under three minutes. We don't linger."
A sudden, violent streak of orange cut him off. A fireball slammed into the street directly in front of them, erupting in a barrier of roaring heat. Johnny Storm landed with a cocky slide, his body shedding white-hot embers.
"You know," Johnny said, firing up a fresh flame in his palm. "Most people just walk in and buy jewelry."
Beetle groaned, adjusting his flight stabilizers. "Not this again."
The ground shuddered. The pavement cracked as Ben Grimm dropped from a nearby fire escape, blocking their retreat. "You boys picked the wrong zip code to rob."
Sue Storm stepped out from behind a parked taxi, her hands already glowing with translucent energy. "Drop the cases and stand down."
Trapster clutched the bags tighter to his chest. "Like hell we will!"
Beetle dove at Johnny, unloading a barrage of energy shots that melted the asphalt. Johnny spiraled into the sky, leaving a corkscrew of fire in his wake. "Come on, Beetle! At least pretend to aim!"
Wizard fired a volley of kinetic discs toward Sue, trying to shatter her focus. She countered them with practiced ease, angling her invisible barriers to deflect the kinetic energy harmlessly into the brick facades above. "You're not going anywhere."
Ben charged Trapster. "Get back here, glue-boy!"
Trapster shrieked and flooded the pavement with a thick wave of quick-drying adhesive. Ben's heavy boots sank in, but with a roar of effort, the Thing simply tore the pavement right out of the ground, swatting Trapster into the hood of a parked town car.
Beetle spiraled out of the sky as Johnny pushed the air temperature around his suit to the limit, forcing a hard crash onto the sidewalk. Sue snapped a containment dome over him before he could roll to his feet.
Wizard glared at the mess of his team. "Useless idiots! Fine—plan B." He tossed a small, heavy sphere onto the ground. It immediately began a high-pitched, digital whine as a red light strobed.
Sue's eyes widened. "Ben! Johnny! Dispersal bomb! It'll level the block!"
Wizard smirked, lifting higher into the air. "Exactly. Save the civilians or catch us. You can't do both."
Before Sue could react to the bomb, Wizard leveled his gauntlets at her. He unleashed a concentrated stream of raw energy directly at her head. Forced to protect herself, Sue dropped the containment dome holding the Beetle and redirected that energy into a spherical shield around her own body.
The moment the dome vanished, Beetle engaged his thrusters and rocketed into the sky. Trapster scrambled to his feet, grabbing his adhesive guns and retreating into the chaos.
Sue threw everything she had outward, expanding a massive, hemisphere force field to push the screaming crowd back and contain the blast site. Johnny swooped down, using his thermal drafts to help Ben physically shove heavy vehicles and debris out of the kill zone. They worked with desperate speed, but the villains were already vanishing over the rooftops.
Ben looked up, fist clenched. "They're rabbiting!"
Sue held her ground, veins standing out on her neck as sweat beaded on her brow. "We don't have a choice! Keep them back!"
The bomb detonated. The shockwave hit Sue's barrier like a physical hammer, turning the air inside the dome a violent, opaque orange. The street shook with a deep bass rumble that rattled teeth for blocks. The shield held, but the backlash sent Sue staggering backward.
Johnny caught her before her knees hit the glass-strewn pavement. "Easy, Sue. I've got you. You did it."
Ben scanned the skyline, furious. "Those three rats slipped out while we were playing shield."
Sue took a slow, shaking breath, forcing her hands to stop trembling. "We stopped the robbery and kept the casualty count at zero. Without Reed, that has to be enough for today. We will get them next time."
Johnny huffed, looking at the melted asphalt. "Yeah. And when we do, I'm roasting them."
The smoke cleared. Civilians stared at the ruined sidewalk, grateful and shaken. The Fantastic Three stood together in the aftermath—not perfect, not victorious, but still the line between chaos and the people they protected.
****
****
[Hudson Valley – David's Office, NYC]
David watched the playback in his office, his expression impassive. He had no interest in the heroics of the Fantastic Three. To him, the heroes were just variables in a much more interesting equation. What hooked him were the tech signatures blinking across the screen.
"Gideon, track their real identities," David said smoothly. "Show me everything you've got."
The display shifted instantly at the command of his AI. Gideon replayed the Beetle's flight path, zooming in and highlighting the wing joints. David leaned closer, his eyes narrowing in appreciation. The suit wasn't simple armor; its telemetry response was incredibly fast, with almost zero input delay. The wing hinge design was clean, and wildly overpowered for such a small frame. That didn't scream black-market tech; it meant a genius touch.
Trapster's epoxy launcher appeared next, Gideon isolating and analyzing the chemical spread. The compound set too fast, hardened too strong, and dispersed in a highly efficient cone pattern. Someone had perfected that formula. David raised an eyebrow.
"A fool with a weapon designed by someone far smarter than him," David muttered.
Then Gideon displayed Wizard's flight system. The discs. The gravity pulses. The way the air visually distorted around his boots. David paused the footage. The discs released micro-bursts of controlled gravity. It wasn't messy or random. It was masterclass engineering.
"Interesting," David said to the quiet room. "Three idiots using tech far above their pay grade. And yet, each of them builds their own gear."
Three profiles materialized on the screen in clean, glowing rows:
Abner Jenkins – The Beetle
Peter Petruski – The Trapster
Bentley Wittman – The Wizard
David nodded once, satisfied. "Forward all of it to John and Robert."
The files transferred in a fraction of a second.
"Tell them to track the three," David commanded. "I want locations, gear specs, and any safehouses they use. No engagement unless absolutely necessary."
The holo-screen dimmed, returning to standby. David leaned back in his leather chair, his eyes sharp. "Let's see where you hide your toys."
But David didn't linger on the villains. He was a man who compartmentalized with military precision. Once the files were sent, he pushed the high-tech intrigue to the back of his mind and returned to his actual day job. The investment firm demanded his attention. Reports, market shifts, and silent calculations filled the next few hours. Time passed quickly.
Eventually, his stomach growled. David checked his watch, sighed, and stood up. Grabbing his coat, he headed out into the city for lunch.
*******
Across the city, Robert Dubois looked down at his phone. A new encrypted message from David had just bypassed his firewall. Three profiles. Three targets.
Robert's lips pulled back into a slow, predatory grin. "Good. Another payday."
Every job he completed for David came with a massive reward in cold, hard cash—none of that digital I.O.U. nonsense. He didn't waste time. Moving with practiced efficiency, he packed his specialized gear into a duffel bag and swept out of his apartment.
"Time to hunt," he muttered to the empty room.
Meanwhile, on a rooftop overlooking the Upper East Side, John sat with his boots dangling over the ledge, bored out of his mind. He was just about ready to call it a day when his wrist comm buzzed.
Scanning the data from Gideon, John raised a single eyebrow.
"Finally," he said, the boredom instantly evaporating from his voice. "Something to do."
He stood up, stretching his neck until it popped, and cracked his knuckles with a dull, hollow sound.
"Let's see who's dumb enough to get caught first."
With that, both men melted into the shadows of the city. The hunt for the Beetle, the Trapster, and the Wizard had officially begun.